Friday, April 18, 2014

Darcy v. Forrest

Darcy, the forgotten child. Although she and her cute chub have more or less overtaken my instagram, she doesn’t get mentioned much on the blog. Which I guess makes sense, because she mostly sits around, all chunky and smiling, and doesn’t produce much news.

She is absolutely the sweetest little peanut in the universe. Which leads me to a sort of dumb reason I haven’t blogged about her much—I almost feel guilty admitting how awesome she is. Back when Forrest was a baby and spending 99.999999992% of his time screaming his fool head off, I remember how much it infuriated and depressed me to see other moms going on about how happy and darling and lovable their babies were. It made me jealous and angry to see other moms enjoying their happy babies so much when I was mostly feeling depressed and stressed over my colicky, unhappy baby. Then I felt guilty about feeling that way about Forrest when other moms were clearly so overjoyed with their kids, so I must be a horrible mother to not be overjoyed with my kid, too, right, even if he happened to be in the midst of some sort of existential baby crisis?

Thank goodness he outgrew his awfulness (more or less), but I remember veeeeery well how hard it was to read/hear about happy babies during that time, so I’ve sort of avoided blogging about Darcy because she really is that happy, smiley baby who is just so dang pleasant 99.99999992% of the time, and I haven’t wanted to rub it in anybody’s face.

A long intro to mainly say she’s a sweetheart, and if you are in the trenches right now with a difficult baby, I’ve sooooooooooooooo been there, and I hope this post about a happy baby doesn’t drive you nuts.

And if it does . . . I’m sorry, and I totally get it if you need to use the escape hatch via a certain little X up in the corner of this page :-)

Darcy’s almost 6 months old now, and I feel ridiculously lucky and blessed to have gotten such an adorably cheerful little nugget. After Forrest’s exceedingly grumpy infancy, I pretty much assumed our gene mix could only produce monsters, so Darcy being pleasant is such a happy surprise. Of course she gets grouchy and angry at times, but overall, she really is just happy to be here. She’s not terribly friendly with strangers at this point, but she loves her family and especially adores Forrest. She absolutely lights up when she sees him and laughs at almost everything he does, and he’s starting to enjoy playing with her and making her laugh, which is just the sweetest thing ever for me to see. She’s started playing with toys recently, loves being outside, is enormous for her age, and sporting the most nom-worthy thigh rolls I’ve ever seen.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me recently that they think Darcy looks like Forrest and it always surprises me . . . I don’t see much, if any, resemblance. At all. But I dug through some older pictures of Forrest to compare with Darcy’s photos and, huh. Maybe they’re on to something.

Why I felt it necessary to label the pictures with their names, I do not know. When one is dressed in blue and brown, and one in pink and red, it’s pretty dang obvious who’s who.

And I may have to revoke my hard-earned Mother of the Year title, because I do think that although they are both adorable, one baby is cuter than the other. I just won’t say who.

20 comments
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I'd say girls are always cuter, but right now I think my boy is as adorable as a toddler can get (at least when he's not throwing tantrums about completely random subjects. I mean really, a massive tantrum because I wouldn't let him put a dirty diaper back on? Seriously cuts down on the adorable factor). And I know what you mean about feeling guilty. My son is as lovely and cuddly as could possibly be, and was really much more fun as a baby than my daughter.

You awful mother, let him have the dirty diaper back! ;-) And I didn't expect how very different loving vs. liking my children would feel. I always LOVED Forrest as a baby . . . but I didn't always like him very much. Did not anticipate that, pre-kids. I sound like a monster, but it is what it is.

Oh my GOODNESS, you make cute babies! Darcy looks like a sweetheart to be around, and clearly from those pictures Forrest wasn't a grump ALL the time (just mostly, from the sound of it, haha)!

Now that I have my first on the way, I've heard multiple times that boys tend to be harder when they're kids, then mellow out by puberty, while girls are the reverse (a breeze until the "terrible teens" loom). I teach middle school, so I say both groups have their moments ;D, but being the oldest of 3 with one girl and one boy behind me, I see where the rule came from. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule!

I think I managed to capture his ONLY smiles on camera ;-) He was worlds happier after hitting 5ish months, but was never nearly as cheerful as Darcy has been. I've heard that about boys and girls, too . . . I guess I'll have to wait and see. And congrats on your first little one! Exciting!

Ok I see the resemblance like you can tell they are siblings but not almost identical or anything. I used to get that with Wil & Harper all the time & was like I don't see it haha... Both of yours are too cute :) Oh and I'm so glad that Darcy is such a happy baby especially after Forrest giving you a hard time. I was lucky where both of mine have been easy babies, I know I know hate me, but Harper has had her challenges definitely the more fussy/sassy of the two from day one but nothing like some (ahem you) have experienced.

Thanks Holly! I love it, too! I was copying this picture, but didn't buy the pattern: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/214061788510287480/

I sort of adapted an existing puff stitch hat pattern to make it smaller and more like the picture, but now I can't remember which pattern I adapted . . . something like this one, though: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/puff-stitch-crochet-cap-with-ear-flaps

Hope that helps! Sorry, it was a while ago and I didn't write anything down.

My Moxie is 2 months older than Darcy. When you first had her I was still incredibly sleep-deprived. I thought, "Darcy is a really cute name. It's really familiar...." Yeah. That's my best friend's name. haha. She's such a cutie pie!